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Arqueille
Joined: 08 Feb 2014
Posts: 17
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 Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 2:49 am Post subject: TESOL Survey: Request for Participants |
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TESOL Survey: Request for Participants
Introduction
This is for a research study for the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. I am asking current and former expatriate TESOL teachers to take a brief survey and answer two paragraph-long essay questions; this form is intended to let you know what the study is about so you can make an informed decision as to whether or not you wish to take part in it. It’s entirely up to you; participation is designed to be completely anonymous. If, after reading it, you decide not to take part, you can simply leave the browser page. If you want to answer some questions and not others, that too is your option.
Before making your decision:
• Please carefully read this form or have it read to you.
• Please ask questions about anything that is not clear.
Feel free to take your time thinking about whether you would like to participate. By agreeing to this form you will not give up any legal rights. If you are completing this consent form online, you may want to print a copy of the consent form for your records.
Study Overview This study plans to learn more about the reasons many new TESOL teachers teaching abroad leave their contracts (and often, the profession) before their first year contract has been completed.
Procedures Past and present TESOL teachers are being asked to click on the Survey Monkey link and answer a 20-question survey. Most of the questions are either true/false or multiple choice; two of them are brief essay-type questions regarding personal or witnessed incidents of teacher attrition. The survey has instructions on how to participate and submit answers. Participation in this should take approximately 10 minutes.
Survey Monkey Link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LTHBQ97
Thank you for your participation! |
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water rat
Joined: 30 Aug 2014
Posts: 1098
Location: North Antarctica
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| Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 12:17 pm Post subject: |
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So I did the survey. There were no essay questions really - just requests with two particular questions to elaborate.
If it wrecks your survey for me to reveal question 11, that's just too bad. I found this question very flippant. I enjoy joking around myself, and just yesterday ran a sort of gag poll here on Dave's, but I made it clear that I was just fooling around. Question 11 reads thus:
11. How would you describe your interactions working with children in a foreign country?
A. I don’t work with children and have no plans to start.
B. I don’t usually work with children, but make exceptions as my work situation requires.
C. I work with them and they are, for the most part, gifted, focused little Mozarts!
D. Kids are kids. I doubt an American classroom would be much different.
E. I work with scheming, devious little hellions.
Excuse me, but is this a serious university study or are you just putting us on?
Oh, and there were 23 questions. I did them in less than five minutes, but why can't you even accurately tell us how many questions there are? |
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spiral78
Joined: 05 Apr 2004
Posts: 11534
Location: On a Short Leash
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| Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 12:56 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Before making your decision:
• Please carefully read this form or have it read to you. |
Are you seriously suggesting that any EFL teacher may be unable to read??
I suppose you could be getting at 'vision-impaired,' but even that would be highly unlikely for a teacher living abroad; very few countries have similar hire-the-handicapped laws and support as does the US which would apply to EFL teachers.
| Quote: |
| Study Overview This study plans to learn more about the reasons many new TESOL teachers teaching abroad leave their contracts (and often, the profession) before their first year contract has been completed. |
This is actually fairly easy to answer. There are a few common reasons for this
1. unexpected family/friend crisis back home
2. runs out of funds (living beyond means of entry-level teacher in foreign country)
3. culture shock/unable to function at reasonable level in foreign country
4. does not take job seriously and is fired by employer (hey, it's all about having a great time and seeing the world, right??!) |
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esl_prof
Joined: 30 Nov 2013
Posts: 2006
Location: peyi kote solèy frèt
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| Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 2:00 pm Post subject: |
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| spiral78 wrote: |
This is actually fairly easy to answer. There are a few common reasons for this
1. unexpected family/friend crisis back home
2. runs out of funds (living beyond means of entry-level teacher in foreign country)
3. culture shock/unable to function at reasonable level in foreign country
4. does not take job seriously and is fired by employer (hey, it's all about having a great time and seeing the world, right??!) |
A fifth reason would be leaving due to an incompetent/dishonest/abusive employer. Of course, there are those instructors who simply can't adjust to cultural differences in management/leadership style (see item #3 above), but there are legitimate cases where employers are truly bad, thus causing teachers to leave their contracts before they finish. |
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spiral78
Joined: 05 Apr 2004
Posts: 11534
Location: On a Short Leash
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| Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 2:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Yes, fair enough. In my 16+ years, I don't personally know of any that are so direly awful (I suspect they are relatively fewer in the European region) but of course there must be many. |
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rtm
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 1003
Location: US
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| Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 3:24 pm Post subject: |
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| spiral78 wrote: |
| Quote: |
Before making your decision:
• Please carefully read this form or have it read to you. |
Are you seriously suggesting that any EFL teacher may be unable to read??
I suppose you could be getting at 'vision-impaired,' but even that would be highly unlikely for a teacher living abroad; very few countries have similar hire-the-handicapped laws and support as does the US which would apply to EFL teachers. |
I don't think the OP expects that many visually impaired or illiterate people will respond. That's just standard boilerplate language that is required by the university's IRB (Institutional Review Board).
| Quote: |
| I suspect they are relatively fewer in the European region |
Interesting. I'd be curious why that is.
In my own 15 years of teaching in Asia, the Middle East, and the US I also don't know of any such instances. However, I've read such stories on here before, and it hasn't struck me as being confined to specific regions. |
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spiral78
Joined: 05 Apr 2004
Posts: 11534
Location: On a Short Leash
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| Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 4:21 pm Post subject: |
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| I suspect that in the European region, there are generally more laws regulating private language schools, and they don't usually get away with rampant exploitation, though I've heard occasionally of a few schools not paying or paying late. |
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johnslat
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 13859
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
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| Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 5:04 pm Post subject: |
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Dear rtm,
"In my own 15 years of teaching in Asia, the Middle East, and the US I also don't know of any such instances."
In my own 20 years of teaching in the Middle East, I knew of quite a few. 
Regards,
John |
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Xie Lin
Joined: 21 Oct 2011
Posts: 731
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| Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 5:14 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
This is actually fairly easy to answer. There are a few common reasons for this
1. unexpected family/friend crisis back home
2. runs out of funds (living beyond means of entry-level teacher in foreign country)
3. culture shock/unable to function at reasonable level in foreign country
4. does not take job seriously and is fired by employer (hey, it's all about having a great time and seeing the world, right??!)
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What I have most often seen ties in with Spiral's #3, but usually features an additional element. The brand new teacher-to-be embarks on the first journey abroad with highly unrealistic expectations about living and working in another country and culture; and he subsequently finds dealing with the reality too difficult and challenging. This is even more likely when #3 meets #5--even a much milder version than the prof was describing, just a run-of-the-mill difficult employer offering no support to new teachers.
The full-blown version of #5 seems a little more likely to happen when the hiring process takes place at a distance, especially for a newbie who may not know how to practice due diligence. So I would venture a guess that it might be more common in those countries which routinely hire from abroad.
. |
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rtm
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 1003
Location: US
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| Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2014 6:48 pm Post subject: |
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| johnslat wrote: |
Dear rtm,
"In my own 15 years of teaching in Asia, the Middle East, and the US I also don't know of any such instances."
In my own 20 years of teaching in the Middle East, I knew of quite a few.
Regards,
John |
Oh yes, I didn't mean to imply that it doesn't happen, as, from what I've read on here, it clearly does. Just that I haven't known anyone personally who experienced it. |
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Arqueille
Joined: 08 Feb 2014
Posts: 17
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| Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 2:49 pm Post subject: |
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| spiral78 wrote: |
Are you seriously suggesting that any EFL teacher may be unable to read??
I suppose you could be getting at 'vision-impaired,' but even that would be highly unlikely for a teacher living abroad; very few countries have similar hire-the-handicapped laws and support as does the US which would apply to EFL teachers.
This is actually fairly easy to answer. There are a few common reasons for this
1. unexpected family/friend crisis back home
2. runs out of funds (living beyond means of entry-level teacher in foreign country)
3. culture shock/unable to function at reasonable level in foreign country
4. does not take job seriously and is fired by employer (hey, it's all about having a great time and seeing the world, right??!) |
spiral78,
The wording was from the template provided by the IRB and they wouldn't approve any version of the request that didn't have that phrasing.
The reasons you gave--three of them, anyway--are indeed common reasons, but aren't the only three and aren't even the most common ones I have seen. |
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Arqueille
Joined: 08 Feb 2014
Posts: 17
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| Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 3:11 pm Post subject: |
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| water rat wrote: |
Excuse me, but is this a serious university study or are you just putting us on?
Oh, and there were 23 questions. I did them in less than five minutes, but why can't you even accurately tell us how many questions there are? |
This is a serious university study. One frequent complaint by new teachers is that they are promised they'd be working with adults and college students, and that frequently turns out not to be the case. Looking past the light-hearted tone, option A marks the ideal situation for many teachers, no young children. B marks the next best thing, almost no young children. C is children, but they're a delight to work with. D is children, but no better or worse than what you'd find in a classroom back home. E, terrible kids, is the furthest one would get from the "no kids" ideal. What looks like a nominal scale is actually an interval scale and can be measured as such.
The first draft of the survey had 20 questions, and this was what the IRB approved after numerous revisions. To comply with Survey Monkey's format (I waited for IRB approval before putting the survey online), three of the questions had to be broken up into separate questions. Since changing the number in the Request for Participants could possibly have resulted in resubmitting the whole package to an IRB that had already approved it, causing a further delay I was keen to avoid, I let the number 20 stand. Mea culpa.
Hope that clears things up! |
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rtm
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 1003
Location: US
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| Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 3:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Arqueille wrote: |
| Looking past the light-hearted tone, option A marks the ideal situation for many teachers, no young children. B marks the next best thing, almost no young children. |
There seem to be some assumptions being made here that may be quite inaccurate. I'm not sure why you would assume that the ideal situation would be to not work with children. I've had some very good experiences working with children, and quite enjoy it. I know many people who seek out jobs teaching children because that is what they enjoy and what their skillset targets. |
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esl_prof
Joined: 30 Nov 2013
Posts: 2006
Location: peyi kote solèy frèt
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| Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 5:22 pm Post subject: |
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| rtm wrote: |
| Arqueille wrote: |
| Looking past the light-hearted tone, option A marks the ideal situation for many teachers, no young children. B marks the next best thing, almost no young children. |
There seem to be some assumptions being made here that may be quite inaccurate. I'm not sure why you would assume that the ideal situation would be to not work with children. I've had some very good experiences working with children, and quite enjoy it. I know many people who seek out jobs teaching children because that is what they enjoy and what their skillset targets. |
Exactly. This is only a valid interval scale inasmuch as the research assumptions are valid which, in this case, it appears that they are not. The IRB doesn't care if the research questions are valid, only whether or not they are illegal or unethical. |
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Arqueille
Joined: 08 Feb 2014
Posts: 17
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| Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 5:37 pm Post subject: |
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| esl_prof wrote: |
| rtm wrote: |
| Arqueille wrote: |
| Looking past the light-hearted tone, option A marks the ideal situation for many teachers, no young children. B marks the next best thing, almost no young children. |
There seem to be some assumptions being made here that may be quite inaccurate. I'm not sure why you would assume that the ideal situation would be to not work with children. I've had some very good experiences working with children, and quite enjoy it. I know many people who seek out jobs teaching children because that is what they enjoy and what their skillset targets. |
Exactly. This is only a valid interval scale inasmuch as the research assumptions are valid which, in this case, it appears that they are not. The IRB doesn't care if the research questions are valid, only whether or not they are illegal or unethical. |
I wrote the questions anticipating answers that reflected situations I'd personally seen, often. The answers I've gotten so far kind of surprise me, but I need to get more before I trumpet any conclusions. The top three reasons I've seen people quit over are not the top three reasons I'm seeing in the survey results, and (assuming the rest of the respondents bear this out) my final paper will reflect this. |
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